Pebble Time users can now reply to texts with an iPhone, as long as it's through AT&T

Pebble has made using its Pebble Time smartwatches with iPhones a bit more friendly today with the addition of iOS text replies. The feature is in beta, but it marks the first time a smartwatch other than the Apple Watch has sported the ability to reply via text with the iPhone.

However, despite how handy the feature is for Pebble Time users, there are quite a few caveats to be aware of. First, the feature is only currently available for AT&T customers due to the way it works. Since Pebble doesn't have the same access to iMessage as the Apple Watch, the company is routing text replies directly through AT&T itself. That means that messages will be sent as SMS rather than iMessages. Additionally, since the message is routing directly through the carrier, your replies won't show up in the iMessage app. Finally, prepaid customers won't be able to activate the feature, and users can't reply to international numbers because of carrier restrictions.

Overall, it's a pretty hacky approach to allowing text replies with an iPhone, but it does bring the experience of using a Pebble Time smartwatch with an iPhone further up to par with its Android counterpart. Pebble says that it is working to enable the feature with more carriers, but you're stuck with AT&T from the outset. If you'd like to check out the feature, simply update your Pebble Time firmware and iPhone app to the latest version, and be sure to check out Pebble's blog post for more details at the source link below.